Pineapple Pudding

Growing up, Eid was always a day of big celebration in the family and we children used to wait for new clothes, pocket money from our elders and special Eid delicacies like biriyani, decadent sweets and puddings.

Food was always the most important part of the celebration and the kitchen was the busiest place in the house on that day with lots of activity going on from dawn.

The delicate aroma of crushed sweet cardamoms and cinnamon wafted through the corridors when we children woke up in the morning, and my mom and grandma would be in the kitchen supervising all the preparations. Once the Biriyani and sweets were ready they were quickly packed and sent to the neighbors in baskets. I knew many of them didn’t cook lunch that day knowing food would be sent to them and in turn they used to sent us Payasam for Onam and iced fruit cake for Christmas!

Pineapple was always an indispensible item in our family for Eid, and it was mostly served fresh – peeled and cut into thin round slices served along with other sweets. Over the years the tradition of serving fresh pineapple slowly evolved into this delectable pineapple pudding. I think it was my mom’s idea to turn it into a pudding and now it has become a tradition in our family.

Pineapple pudding

Ripe pineapple – ½

Sugar – ¼ cup

Clove – a few

Milk – 250ml

Condensed milk – 100 ml

Egg yolk – 2

Sugar – 1 tablespoon

Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon

Cream – 100 ml

Agar-agar (china grass) – 5 g

Water – 250 ml

Method

Peel and chop pineapple into small pieces, mix it with ¼ cup of sugar and cloves. Cook tit over medium heat for 10 – 15 minutes until the pineapple pieces are bright yellow and most of the liquid has evaporated, leave it aside to cool. When cold remove the cloves from the mixture and discard.

Mix milk with condensed milk in a saucepan and heat until it starts to boil.

Whisk the egg yolks with sugar and pour the above hot milk mixture over the yolks, mix well and cook on medium flame, mixing all the time until the custard starts to thicken. Remove from fire and add vanilla extract and cool.

Soak agar-agar in 250 ml of cold water for a few minutes and then cook over a low flame until the entire agar- agar had dissolved into water.

Mix the cooled custard with agar- agar and lightly whipped cream.

Pour it into serving molds and cool slightly until it starts to thicken and then sprinkle 2-3 tablespoon of cooled pineapple mixture on top and chill in the fridge until the pudding is set.